IRS-Assisted Communication in Three-Dimensional Stochastic Geometry Channel Utilising Uniform Rectangular Array Transmitters with Hardware Defects

Abstract

The increasing demand for efficient and reliable wireless communication has driven interest in Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces (IRS). This study introduces a novel 3D stochastic geometry model for IRS-assisted communication, uniquely integrating Uniform Rectangular Arrays (URA) as transmitters to evaluate the impact of hardware impairments (HWI) on spectral efficiency (SE) and outage probability. Unlike prior works, this study incorporates realistic system constraints, including phase noise, amplifier nonlinearities, and channel state information errors, into a comprehensive 3D framework. Our findings reveal that distortion noise resulting from HWI reduces SE by up to 45% while increasing IRS elements and optimizing URA configurations can mitigate these effects. This work establishes a benchmark for advancing IRS-assisted communication by addressing practical deployment challenges and offering insights critical for next-generation wireless networks. � The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.